I've been re-reading some of the books in my library lately, including a few by Ray Bradbury. Currently I'm into one of his older short-story collections, 'The Toynbee Convector'. Part of what I like about his stories is that they are immersive - his descriptive prose is poetry-like, and really lets you imagine being in the scene. In today's world of doom-filled news, I welcome losing myself in a good story. Also the short story format makes reading possible any time you have a free 15-20 minutes. Anyway, this particular collection of short stories is very good, and probably represents Bradbury at the peak of his writing career.

My wife particularly enjoys having animals in the yard, so we have bird feeders that attract both birds and squirrels. Later in the summer the squirrels love scaling the sunflower stalks and eating the seeds. Various neighborhood cats visit us daily and get a treat, and we have a skunk this year who helped get rid of our grubs. We've had a marmot visit in past years, but he doesn't seem to be around this year. Still plenty of activity.

As you can imagine, our lawn can not in any way be considered the ideal neighborhood lawn, what with skunk-dug holes and a patchwork of grass, clover, wildflowers and dandelions. But it is damned easy to maintain, and doesn't need any pesticides or even a lot of water. The bees also like it. Unfortunately one of our neighbors is the stereotypical obsessive lawn guy, with the perfectly manicured, lush green lawn that requires constant water, chemicals and mowing. He put up a fence two years ago after demanding we chemically treat our grubs, and we told him no. Out of sight, out of mind.

We do still mow the lawn, although we started late this year to give the dandelions time to bloom for the bees and other pollinating insects. Our town and many others in the area specifically urged residents not to mow their lawns in May and to allow the dandelions to grow unhindered just for this reason. This seems to be a thing lately, which we are glad for. Hopefully some day soon the "perfect" suburban lawn will be a footnote in the history books.

Cases have been low here so far this summer, but are just starting to rise, following the lead of other countries in Europe and parts of the US. I think it's just a matter of time before we are fully into a new wave of infections. Will this wave lead to more hospitalizations? No idea, but it may not matter. I predict that in a year or so we will be grappling with a sharp increase in disabilities due to long COVID.

Now I manually craft and link new posts from the blog index, then add a single entry to the existing RSS feed. It doesn't take much longer than it used to to post something, and I don't have to stare at someone else's Bash script when a bug crops up. I'll probably automate the RSS feed generation at some point.

Rentals are not much better, I think renting a house used to be a good option for young families, but now it is too unstable. Landlords are kicking out renters so they can sell for a huge profit, or are having a family member move in for a year so they can renovate and massively increase rent on the next tenant (Quebec has pretty decent tenant protections, but one of the holes is that a landlord can force someone out if they or their family are moving in, or they are selling the house). Our previous landlord did that to us - she tried to get us to buy the house we had been renting for two years, but when we refused (it had lots of issues we could overlook as renters but not as owners), she told us her brother was moving in. We moved out, and she renovated while her brother was there, then more than doubled the rent to new tenants when he moved out a year later.

It's been a long time since I remember being some place quiet. I'm not just talking low noise, I mean NO noise. On our first day we went out on the lake in a canoe, there was no wind and clear skies. The only sounds were those of nature. Birds, mostly. No highway noise, no construction, not even other people. I'd forgotten how enjoyable this can be, and even though we only spent three days there, coming back to our home in the suburbs was a bit jarring. On my return I really noticed the constant background noise. Sadly, I am sure I will acclimate to the noise again, but I'll be back to that cabin for sure. I'm jealous of those of you who live in the country full-time and don't have to deal with noise pollution.

I just wanted to add that my own gopher use/participation has waxed and waned since I've been using it (I started my phlog at SDF in 2009), and I'm not worried that gemini or some other protocol will somehow eclipse gopher. These things are cyclic and I'm sure there will be another surge in gopher use at some point, and maybe even a corresponding decrease in gemini use as the newness wears off.

COVID-wise things are finally getting better, and our region's curfew will end on May 28th. I read recently that Canada has surpassed the US for first-shot percentage. The culture here is a bit different than in the US, at least as far as vaccine hesitancy. Most people want the vaccine, and we don't see the political divide on this issue like in the US. So I think the final percentage of people vaccinated will be quite a bit higher than south of the border. Like many people, we're anxious to travel again and visit relatives - both in Canada and the US, and it's looking like by August we will be able to do that safely.

We've slipped back into a COVID red zone in the Eastern Townships, averaging about 380 new cases/6 deaths per week for the past few weeks. People are getting careless with the warmer weather, or maybe getting a false sense of security with a lot of 'one shotters' walking around now. Canada had vaccine supply issues early on, and so delayed people's second shots to 12+ weeks. My own second shot won't be until mid-August, despite getting my first shot in April. So for now I am still being careful.

All that said, if I may be an optimist, I hope that the reaction to the Trump presidency will shake voters from their apathy and slowly move mainstream policies in a progressive direction.

I no longer think the last bit is true about progressive policies - if that is to happen in the US, it won't be under a Biden Presidency. But about apathy, I think what Trump has done is motivate independents and young people to vote against him (and even some republicans). Not necessarily for Biden, but against Trump. People who might have voted for Hillary but stayed home in 2016 are now highly motivated to vote. I think this is why we're seeing huge early vote totals in some of the battleground states, and why I think Biden will win.

If I were still living in the US, I would have voted for Bernie in the democratic primaries - not that it would have done any good. It seemed like no matter what, Biden was going to be nominated. The democratic establishment went to great lengths to protect and push Biden's nomination forward. Consider that Trump was impeached not because his regime kidnapped infants and children and tortured asylum seekers, but because he tried to smear Joe Biden.

But Biden is just a status-quo candidate for the corporatist machine that rules Washington. I suspect that wall street and the corporate lobbyists can't wait to see him in office. Trump proved impossible to control, always saying the quiet part out loud. His corruption was on full display. Biden is a savvy politician, and won't make such mistakes.

If everyone succumbs to this line of thinking, and no one wears masks, the COVID-19 virus will quickly spread. Hospital ICUs will overflow, emergency rooms will overflow, and hospital waiting rooms will overflow. Soon, people who have life-threatening injuries or medical problems will die because they can't get medical treatment fast enough.

When this happens, governments will shut down businesses and schools again, and you will be at home, in lockdown. You will not be free to visit friends or family, or go out to get your haircut or go to the park.

You will not be free.

If you choose to wear a mask when around other people, and your fellow citizens do the same, the virus won't spread as fast and the hospitals will be able to keep up. Businesses and schools can stay open. You will be able to go out and visit friends and family, or get a haircut, or go to the park. You will be free.

Wear a mask and be free.

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